Croatia

Our trip to Croatia was outstanding. Mikey Schaefer and I drove the coast from southern Slovenia to Paklenica National Park in late April. We met our awesome crew of Slovenian friends for an insanely busy Easter weekend, and they gave us a great tour.

Like all great climbing areas, this was stormy sometimes

Paklenica is a park with extensive limestone cliffs and caves. Anica Kuk the largest, rises 350 meters (1,155 feet) above the valley floor. It has a huge verity of routes from 5.9 to 5.13+

Brittany and Kate on Zenet's crux pitch, high on Anica Kuk

I climbed 3 really cool routes on Anica Kuk, Dinka do Dinka, Zenit, and Albatros. Brittany Grifith and I also entered the Paklenica Big Wall Speed Climbing Competition, and the announcer couldn’t get over saying “you American girls were really, really, very fast!” over and over he said it on the loud speaker. Really, really, very fast! We placed 2nd…. the Local girls were way to fast to catch, they are the reigning champions doing the 3 pitch route in 14.5 minutes. Our time was 17.5 min, really really very fast, as far as we were concerned.

Brittany shows off our speed climbing trophies

The sport climbing was totally fun. There was a great arch to climb in, and a few really fun caves with STEEP routes. And tons of Radiators, the water sculpted runnels that are shaped like those old fashion oil radiators. Our crack climbing skills came in handy, you could off-width many of them, until they turned to wild in-obvious slab climbing.

sardines

The hang was brilliant, many apartments are available, and there was a perfect cafe at the mouth of the canyon, called Dinka’s. They made awesome grilled fish, plenty of beer on tap, and fresh, local wine.

beer

It is a brilliant easy adventure sport climbing destination! The people were incredibly nice and welcoming. The stone is perfect. I would go back in a heartbeat.